Essay Example on Tragic hero is a character whose misfortune comes Unwanted

The tragic hero is a character whose misfortune comes unwanted but also by some error of judgment This judgment error inevitably leads to his her own downfall Aristotle has said that A man doesn't become a hero until he can see the root of his own destruction Carli 2015 Most of histories early plays were written as either a tragedy or comedy In tragic plays the unlikely hero will do something that will kill the character Oedipus the main character of the play is a king with ideal tragic hero traits in his personality but his downfall is due to flaws in his moral decisions That makes the reader have the tragic hero feeling at the end of the play when all the good of Oedipus is muddled in his fight against his evilness Oedipus parents had to throw him away the day he was born because it was foretold that he would kill his father and marry his mother He was pitied by the shepherd who was supposed to leave him in the mountains of Cithaeron Instead of dying and out of pity for the baby the shepherd gave him to the shepherd of King Polybus Sophocles 

Oedipus nobility provided his first key to becoming a tragic hero Adhering to Aristotle's thought the readers must see the tragic hero as a larger than life character Carli 2015 Oedipus nobility earns him this respect in numerous ways First Oedipus is the son of Laius and Jocasta the King and Queen of Thebes So he is noble in the fact that his parents themselves were royalty Secondly Oedipus believes he is the son of Polybus and Merope the King and Queen of Corinth Again this fact reinforces his nobility but it is also a false nobility Finally he solves the problem of the Sphinx and this garners him royal respect at Thebes Also the people of Thebes came to respect him due to the fact he had saved the city from the Sphinx You came to Cadmus city and freed us from the tribute payment the Sphinx demanded that cruel singer We could not tell you what to do or how to do it but we are sure that the gods must have helped you to save our lives 35 39 Creon gives him control over the city and he does this to thank him for his actions Sophocles 

This also shows that his nobility comes from many sources and the readers develop a sense of respect and an emotional attachment to him Aristotle points out that Oedipus tragic flaw is excessive pride or hubris which is a personality trait of extreme foolishness Carli 2015 The opening scene reveals Oedipus as a king who is concerned about the wellbeing of his people He addresses them as my children and most kings did that during this time frame 1 He could be considered a great man with respectable moral value and personality He is determined to fight and avoid evil at all costs His search for truth is a major cause of his downfall and is one of the most tragic things in the play As a king he wants to be the truth and the truth for his people He gives his best effort to everything he does as a person and as a king He said Sleepless I pace and weep and my mind wanders all the roads of thought in search of remedy 66 68 This is regarding how he is so worried about the problem of the plague that he hasn t been sleeping He says that he is suffering for the city collectively and has been walking restlessly instead of sleeping He says that he will not talk to people through messengers and that he would rather go to them instead to talk face to face Aristotle used the word hamartia to indicate the main characters most glaring weakness In this instance pride would have to be his hamartia Carli 2015 He is too proud arrogant and assumes too much about his own understanding He has power to control his life but he can't control chance reality fate and time He has a bad temper and poor judgment The error of a tragic character is basically the error of judgment according to Aristotle Carli 2015 Oedipus wrongly judges his own situation 

In Aristotle's thought the audience would lose respect for the character and be unable to pity them If the hero failed and it was an accident then the audience would not fear for the hero The tragedy of Oedipus is a tragedy of the human situation His story tells us that man can do his best but even then he cannot overcome the inevitable fate Oedipus eventually sees the truth of his life so Sophocles hammers home his point by having the king stab out his own eyes Oedipus says he does this because he can no longer look at the evil that his actions have created crying out that they should never see him again nor what he suffered nor the evil he did nor look on those they should not but only darkness forever 1271 74 Oedipus literally becomes the thing he's always been blind Therefore he is an example of a tragic hero because he gouged out his eyes which later came back to destroy him At the end of the play Oedipus becomes symbol for all of humanity in that he is going forward blind into the future